For Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, accountability is non-negotiable. Members of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF) party have made tracking down alleged “financial delinquents” and “criminals” a priority. Since they came to power, many dignitaries of the old regime have found themselves trapped. But the President of the Republic and his Prime Minister are faced with a big equation.
The accountability machine is in motion. In recent days, Farba Ngom has been back in the news. The MP is at the heart of a procedure to lift his parliamentary immunity, initiated following accusations of money laundering. According to reports from the National Financial Information Processing Unit (Centif), he is suspected of having created shell companies to carry out questionable transactions totaling more than 125 billion CFA francs, with unjustified financial flows between his personal accounts, those of his relatives and partner companies.
Farba Ngom denied any involvement in this affair. This great defender of Macky Sall will be neither the first nor the last member of the Alliance For the Republic (APR) to have problems with the justice system. But for many members of Pastef, the regime has not yet tackled the real “culprit”. For these Patriots, Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s predecessor as President is the main “suspect” in these “financial crimes. Many people criticized the decision to let Macky leave the country after his defeat.
If it only depended on these “Pastefians”, Macky Sall would already be behind bars. Fortunately, the time for justice is not the time for politics. But Pastef is not the only one to hold a grudge against the former President of the Republic. People claiming to be victims of the latest demonstrations also want to take the boss of the APR to court. So everyone is angry with the man who ruled Senegal for twelve (12) long years.
Gathered in “the collective of victims of President Macky Sall’s regime”, these people had displayed their firm desire to contact the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to request the opening of in-depth investigations. In a recent letter addressed to King Mohammed VI, the collective listed the grievances brought against former President Macky Sall. “More than 80 deaths were recorded during political demonstrations, missing people, desperate citizens forced into exile or having perished in the Mediterranean. Arbitrary detentions took place, leaving many people in difficult conditions, thirsty for justice and in search of the truth,” he said.
-“Aware of having caused immense suffering to hundreds, even thousands of families, Macky Sall had, a few days before his departure, adopted an amnesty law for these crimes, quickly validated by his parliamentary majority. Thus, at the end of his mandate, on April 2, 2024, he hastily left Senegal to go to Saudi Arabia, before settling in Morocco, his new place of residence,” specify Boubacar Seye and Co. .
But how will the Diomaye-Sonko duo go about satisfying this desire of the victims? Bringing Macky Sall to justice is easier said than done. Article 101 of the Senegalese Constitution specifies that “the President of the Republic is only responsible for acts performed in the exercise of his functions in the event of high treason. He can only be indicted by the National Assembly, ruling […] by a three-fifths majority of its members; he is judged by the High Court of Justice.” This raises another central question: what is high treason?
“Neither the Constitution nor the organic law on the High Court of Justice define it precisely. In other words, it will be up to the deputies to do it,” explained lawyer Mouhamadou Ngouda Mboup. In other words, it will be up to the High Court of Justice to determine whether Macky will be prosecuted or not. And with all the ongoing legal cases, it could take time for the regime to look into the case of a former president outside the territory.
So the regime finds itself faced with an equation with two variables. Bring Macky Sall to justice or let him go about his activities freely. A real headache for the Diomaye-Sonko duo.
Aliou Niakaar Ngom for news.sn
